A retrospective analysis of 20 eyes with progressive keratoconus and 10 eyes with advanced bullous keratopathy were treated with CXL. We performed CXL using the accelerated CXL protocol (5 minutes of continuous irradiation time at 18 mW/cm2 UV intensity) using the KXL® System (Avedro Inc., USA) and measured the DLD of all eyes using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) at 1 month.

Results:

In the keratoconus group, the mean DLD was 295.1 µm ± 54.72 (SD). In the bullous keratopathy group, the mean DLD was 365.2 µm ± 39.61 (SD). The DLD was statistically significantly deeper in the bullous keratopathy group than in the keratoconus group (p = 0.001, t test for unpaired data).

Conclusions:

Despite using the same CXL protocol, the difference in the DLD was statistically significant between the keratoconus and bullous keratopathy groups. Further study is needed to determine why.